How long until we see Google Play on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux?

The feature could lead to Google's ecosystem on every desktop OS.

Earlier this week, some Chrome OS code surfaced that suggested the Google Play Store would bring "millions" of Android apps to Chrome OS. Google has experimented with Android apps on Chrome OS, but now it seems poised to unleash the full collection of Android apps onto the "browser only" operating system. There's no official word from Google on how this will play out, but the very architecture of Google's Android-apps-on-Chrome OS implementation opens some interesting possibilities.

The feature is possible because of the "App Runtime for Chrome (ARC)," a project that implements the Android runtime on top of Chrome's "Native Client" extension architecture. Native Client is a Chrome sandboxing technology that was designed with performance and portability in mind, allowing plugins to run at "near native" speeds by taking full advantage of the system's CPU and GPU. ARC took a big step last year when it added support for the Google Play Services APIs, which many Play Store apps depend on to work.

Further Reading

The Play Store on Chrome OS would open Google Play apps to a new form factor (horrible Android laptops notwithstanding), but it could also be the tip of the iceberg. Remember, ARC is just a Chrome extension, so it works everywhere desktop Chrome works. If the full Google Play Store comes to ARC, it would be possible for it to work on not just Chrome OS, but also Chrome's other host desktop operating systems: Windows, OS X, and Linux.

We could be looking at a trojan horse. What if Chrome OS is just the test platform, with a plan to eventually unleash Google Play on every other desktop platform in the future? Every computing device today is part of an ecosystem play, so what if Google's ecosystem could do battle with Apple and Microsoft on their own platforms?

If Play comes to Chrome OS, a move to every major desktop OS would certainly be technically possible. The first version of ARC was artificially limited to Chrome OS, but a hack appeared just nine days after it launched that enabled it to work on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Google's official "ARC Welder" app now lets anyone package an existing Android APK up as a Chrome extension that will work on any desktop platform.

There's also the possible rumor of Chrome and Android "merging" into a new desktop OS. It's a wild rumor, but it comes directly from The Wall Street Journal. And if the paper was wrong, it would be the first time it flubbed a big Google rumor. It's easy to imagine Google Play on Chrome is part of this supposed rumor, but I think this is a separate project that goes along with Google's preference to diversify and build two of everything. The Chrome/Android rumors are about creating an Android-based desktop operating system. In that project, Google would build the system UI and every other part of the operating system from the ground up. Google Play as a Chrome extension is more about having Google Play taking over everyone else's desktop platform. It's similar to Google's app strategy now, where Google makes its own mobile operating system, but you can also get Google's myriad apps on iOS.

Further Reading

Taking a "big picture" view of things, a move like this could be part of a strategy to make Android apps work on every device imaginable. Today Android apps work on watches, phones, tablets, cars, and televisions. Add the full potential of the Google Play Chrome extension, and Android apps also run on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Poke around in the rumor mill and there are even a few more possible form factors coming: multiple reports have claimed Google is building a special version of Android for VR headsets. We've even seen hints of Android becoming a VR platform in Android N. There's also the aforementioned Android-based desktop OS. If these all pan out into actual products, that's a whole lot of form factors that would be compatible with Android.

That would be an incredible pitch for developers. Write for Google Play and you'll be targeting every major operating system for every form factor, save iOS. Of course you wouldn't want to just blindly run phone apps on everything. Developers would still be encouraged to use the same core app code on every platform, plus build a few custom interfaces for the major form factors. The challenge for Google would be getting developers to actually make these custom interfaces for every platform, which is something it hasn't been able to do with Android tablets. It's been such a problem that Google has tried to work around this for some of the newer Android platforms: on Android Auto and Android Wear, Google builds the interface and developers just plug their data into the framework. Even if Google can't get developers to play along, the good news for desktops is that phone apps actually aren't that bad when you can put them in a floating window.

So if Google Play ever does come to Chrome OS, look out. It could be a play for a hostile ecosystem takeover of every major desktop operating system. Google has been building Native Client and ARC for quite some time. Now the company has to decide if it wants to push the button.

Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron.amadeo@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo